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Ever been lying in bed trying to get to sleep and have an enlightening question pop into your head?

 

Okay, perhaps some of you have other things pop into other parts of the body, but let's leave all comments re this one alone.

 

Anyway it struck me last night that there was perhaps a double standard happening on many Japanese feilds.

 

Everywhere you go these days seems to have a table top for huge airs, one makes, quarter pies etc. for people to practice breaking their bones, necks, backs, etc. Just last Sat. I saw a skier pull an amazing back flip off the huge kicker at Kandatsu while being watched eagerly and by the patrol and the guy standing directing the traffic on the jump. He was subsequently followed by a boarder who lost it in the air and came crashing down in a big heap.

 

As much as I would like to try this stuff I like the fact that I can walk and talk normally and hope to keep it that way for as long as it is in my control.

 

Twenty minutes earlier on the double chair leading up to the peak of the mountain it just so happened that two patrol guys were on the chair in front of me. A guy confindently skiing in the trees off to the right of the lift on the 45 degree slope, not roped off and in bounds, came shooting passed. The Patrol guys in the give-a-guy-a-uniform-and-all-of-a-sudden-they-are-god bellowing voice yell out in unison "this is not an area you should be skiing on. Please retrun to the course immediately!"

 

Not more than three minutes later a powder robber came scooting down under the lift in beautiful form, what do you think the patrol guys sitting in front did?

 

"This is not an area you should be skiing on. Please retrun to the course immediately!"

 

How can it be that doing back flips and allowing beginners on huge jumps who wipe out better than a bug on a windscreen breaking their arms, legs and whatever else are being sanctioned by the patrol? Yet someone who skis the trees in-bounds or robs the powder under the lift must feel like a criminal and are lead to beleive that they are somehow putting his/her life at risk?

 

As far as I can see both these activities, or rather the sport itself carry the same risks.

 

Why must I feel like a criminal skiing the trees in the bliss of nature, or robbing the virgin powder under the lift when Tanaka can pull a sanctioned back flip off a purpose built kicker?

 

The Japanese fields are riding the evolution of our sport that came about three years ago, but are not ready to embrace this years back country powder evolution. In a country of commercialism I find this contradiction hard to fathom.

 

Well that's my ramble. Hope it didn't bore anyone.

 

[This message has been edited by mogski (edited 29 January 2002).]

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AGREED!

 

if its not ropped off, than thats bullsh!t...

 

but face it...in general, japanese are just

super worry-worries...

 

I mean, we are talking about people that insist on wearing snow-chains/snow-tires

if you drive to the mtn (forget the fact

that the roads could be completly dry!)...

 

patrol just assumes that a stationary tree

posses more danger than a Tanaka moving

at 20km/hr off a death kicker...

 

no point in trying to analyze...just learn

to live with it...

 

danz

 

------------------

pray for snow

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do you know of any mountains that don't

parctice this double standard?? I'd

like to know...

 

have you complained to Nozawa about not

opening the tree run under the quad at top??

how many complaints before they open it??

My guess is most of these type of complaints

come from people like us (gaijin that is), and i doubt a change...unless you know otherwise...

 

i will keep ducking ropes and getting my powder fix...filing a comlaint, the way things work in japan, would take too much of

my time...

 

maybe we should start a massive campaign...

Snow Riders For Better Snow Riding in Japan

flood every ski resort with email complaints...would SJG sponsor this?

 

danz

 

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pray for snow

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Danz, like the idea.

 

Ocean, complaining could work if we all lived in a society whose motto was not -- Deru kui wa utareru - The nail that sticks up will be hammered down(Don't know the English equivalent)

 

When I walk into the shops in Kanda I see more and more powder oriented products. The longer, fatter boards. The short fat-fat skis. I saw this same tendency a few years back when the freeride evolution began to hit Japan. This would hint at the real changing force being the maker's and the products they want to push. It can only be a matter of time.

 

BUT in the meantime, LET'S COMPLAIN! LET'S GET SPONSORED BY SJG!

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"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, tralala..." mad.gif

 

danz, nobody's bothered me at Nozzle, that's why I go there. If they did start bothering me, I'd be onto them sharpish.

 

Having failed to find a pair of boots that fit me in the stores around here (yes, that's right, the big sizes SELL OUT, because people WANT THEM), I've complained to the management, pointed out that they have lots of other sizes unsold, and urged them to get onto the manufacturers. These people are so thick, they haven't even thought about things from the user's side, and sometimes they seem genuinely grateful to have received a hint. It may just turn out to be the same with the resorts.

 

Fight...For the Right...To POW DAH!

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This is going to get FLAMED big time, I'm sure but....

 

...isn't it the resorts right to decide the rules themselves. They own the place, they operate the place, they insure the place, they are responsible for A,B,C,etc. Bottom line - THEY DECIDE!

 

I think some of you guys are forgetting that and just moaning coz you think you are right and so THEY SHOULD! The reality is probably far more complex than you image (or could understand

 

Let the flames begin!

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Who are the ones who give reason to the field being there?

 

Beleive me, I have thought about this angle. But it just don't fit.

 

They can make all the rules they want, but if they don't give people what they want then they will soon find out that the laws of consuming no longer work in their favour. Nor will any lifites, ticket people etc. cause there won't be any money working in their favour either.

 

 

[This message has been edited by mogski (edited 29 January 2002).]

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ron mc'd, are you or have you ever been a JET AET?

 

Because I've heard that totally spineless attitude of lassitude coming from many a mealy AET mouth...

 

You can see it as complex if you wish, or you could see it as being just a simple matter of businesses waking up to find themselves in a service economy instead of the 'build it and they will come' post-war period.

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Y'know Ocean we are not disagreeing here, I am sure. I agree that it's daft.

 

All I am saying is that if they falter as a business because of their decisions as a business, then so be it. That's their choice, not ours. Doesn't mean to say that we should like it and accept it. If we don't accept it then we don't go, yeah?

 

Also, the large majority of skiers and boarders in Japan don't give a rats bottom about "backcountry", let's be honest!

 

And no, I was not a JET. I have a background in marketing.

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Perhaps you'd like to show your credentials by discussing the current marketing mix employed by Japanese resorts. Maybe you can explain the significance of the helicopters featured in some resort commercials. What could that all be about I wonder?

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Luckily I dont have to prove anything to someone I dont know who spends all day every day posting messages on a forum board. He says with a hint of sarcasm.

 

But you do know some big words don't you Ocean. Marketing mix - bet you think it makes a nice cake don't ya.

 

Anyway, end of this discussion from me.

 

Bye.

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Danz

you were asking about any resorts that don't practice the double standard:

 

Hakkoda-san in Aomori.... deep pow tree skiing that has no ropes....not enforced really. They stop a rookie who might duck under.

There'll be a feature out on the gondola area likely on Feb 11th.

330cm of POW right now....70cm dump over the weekend!!

 

The attitude there is all about the POW

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